


Expectations

by PingZing



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Post-Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-20
Updated: 2011-03-20
Packaged: 2017-10-17 04:02:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PingZing/pseuds/PingZing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanaya reflects on victory and the events that led up to it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Expectations

Brilliant sunlight drizzles into the room drop by drop, setting the floor ablaze with golden luminescence. She stands at the window looking out across the horizon and marvels at the ethereality of the scene. It was not so long ago that she inhabited the cold interior of a dim rock in the void of the Incipisphere’s approximation of space, hoping that she'd live and expecting not too.. And since fate is a cruel mistress, Hope was the very thing that murdered the future of her race, and then herself.

That hadn’t been enough to stop her. Perhaps she’d been unduly influenced by the pale alien girl, but she refused to believe her fate could not be repaired. She'd spat in Death’s face and arose to mete out justice to the traitor, determined to make things right in the face of inevitability.

And so it was that she found herself, a scant week later, watching a golden sunrise, one hand set against the wall, simply observing. Completing her serenity is the sound of rhythmic breathing behind her, rising and falling in the tempo of slumber, its source the same intoxicating ~~ly underwhelming~~ alien girl that had so inspired her before. She inhales deeply, and though the room doesn’t smell like anything notable, she finds that it smells like something she’s increasingly inclined to call _home_ or perhaps simply _happiness_. It smells like safety and peace and stability, and most certainly nothing like nearly seven hundred hours of death-defying fear, adrenaline, determination, elation, crushing loss and then, risen phoenix-like, true victory.

The strange, pale girl behind her stirs, spots of red tinting her cheeks (Rosy cheeks, she’d heard them called, and couldn’t resist a smile at the wordplay) from sleep, something the grey-skinned girl still finds novel. She looks away from the window, and catches the alien girl’s gaze. It is wide-eyed, and her breathing is rapid, the tendrils of a nightmare still hooked into her psyche.

Kanaya half-turns intending to move to the bed but Rose is faster. She darts out from under the covers and presses against Kanaya’s side. She stares steadfastly out the window, refusing to make eye contact, but her pale fingers find Kanaya’s glowing white ones and Kanaya is her life preserver. Rose grabs Kanaya’s upper arm with her free hand and leans her head against Kanaya’s shoulder, shaking. Kanaya waits while Rose closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

“Nightmares again?” She asks.

Rose lets out a shuddering breath, sucks in another, and holds it for a moment before exhaling. She opens her eyes and straightens, and her grip on Kanaya is no longer that of a woman drowning. She nods, still staring straight ahead, eyes drinking in the golden radiance, as though if she stares long enough, she can absorb some of the sun's warmth. Rose straightens her back and sets her shoulders, regains her composure. She turns to Kanaya after a time, her expression grateful, but ashamed. She mouths the words thank you, and no sound escapes her throat.

In the final battle, her voice had been taken from her as the dark gods used her as a conduit for their indignation. Her mortal vocal cords had been ruined beyond repair, unsuited as they were to the task of eldritch rage. Through a combination of ectobiology and assistance from the Witch of Life, Rose is recovering, but progress is slow. She will be relegated to silence for some time yet.

Kanaya has found that neither she nor Rose mind the silence when in each other’s presence. A touch on the shoulder here, a gentle smile there, an afternoon spent reading their separate books, sitting side by side with shoulders just touching. It's enough. Kanaya never thought she'd find herself living with an alien girl on a planet in a universe she helped create. Well. She never expected the alien girl part, anyway. The White Queen had been very clear on the matter of universe creation when she had met her on Prospit but she supposed that this wasn't really the same because they'd made a new universe but really it wasn't that much different universe creation still happened and oh dear, she was rambling again.

Kanaya reins in her runaway thoughts and returns to the present with the strange, pale alien girl held by her side and the gentle sunlight enveloping them both.

Unexpected. But now that she has it, she wouldn't have it any other way.


End file.
